Machu Picchu cruise option

On the way to Chile, the Ms Veendam calls at ports in Mexico and Central America before making its way to Manta, Ecuador and Peru. There’s a chance 3 while in Salaverry to visit a world heritage site as part of Holland America's optional, three-day, two-night shore excursion to Machu Picchu. The ruins of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. While the Inca people certainly used the Andean mountain top, erecting many hundreds of stone structures from the early 1400s, legends and myths indicate that Machu Picchu was revered as a sacred place from a far earlier time. Whatever its origins, the Inca turned the site into an extraordinary city. Invisible from below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population, and watered by natural springs, Machu Picchu seems to have been utilized by the Inca as a secret ceremonial city. Two thousand feet above the rumbling Urubamba river, the cloud shrouded ruins have palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, all in a remarkable state of preservation.